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Beyonce uses her star power for good

The superstar is sounding off on a cause she cares about, gender equality, in a new essay written for Maria Shriver's just-released "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Pushes Back From the Brink," which the journalist wrote with the Center for American Progress, examining the sad financial state of American women. Bey, mom to 2-year-old Blue Ivy, wrote a piece called, "Gender Equality Is a Myth," in which she describes why the issue is important to everyone, regardless of gender.

"We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn't a reality yet," the 32-year-old Mrs. Carter wrote. "Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more — commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect."

She continued, "Humanity requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. So why are we viewed as less than equal? These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible. We have a lot of work to do, but we can get there if we work together. Women are more than 50 percent of the population and more than 50 percent of voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 percent of the opportunities."

Shriver explained to Yahoo Celebrity that the Queen B's star power would definitely help shine a light on the report, which can be downloaded for free through Jan. 15.

"When a strong, successful and hardworking woman like Beyoncé lends her voice to a movement, people immediately listen," Shriver said. "As a professional, Beyoncé is at the top of her game, and yet, as she writes in the Shriver Report, gender equality in the workplace is still a concern. There is so much work to be done, and role models like Beyoncé reinforce why it's such an exciting time to be a woman."

Beyoncé has shown her feminist side before when she released songs such as 2011's "Run the World (Girls)" and "Flawless," a song from the self-titled album that she unexpectedly dropped last month. On that track she sings about the same thing: "We raise girls to each other as competitors, Not for jobs or for accomplishments, Which I think can be a good thing, But for the attention of men, We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings In the way that boys are, Feminist: the person who believes in the social, Political, and economic equality of the sexes."

Several other celebs also loaned their names to the report: Eva Longoria wrote in support of Latinas, Jada Pinkett Smith took on human-trafficking, and Jennifer Garner talked about poverty and parenthood.